“Oh bugger I forgot to bring a quill,” Rose sighed humorously, as if endeared by her own forgetfulness.

Louisa on the other hand scowled, nudging her with her elbow and hissing so that Professor Winthrop didn’t hear, “Are you for real? Rose, I swear, some times you are such a dunderhead…”

Rose just laughed, “You don’t have a spare do you?”

“What do you take me for? I have heaps of spare inkpots, but that’s not going to do you any favours, is it?”

“Hm,” thought Rose contemplatively, “no it is not.”

Scouting the classroom and seeing that Winthrop was preoccupied with Little Martha Longbottom, Rose leant forward, tapping Albus sharply on the shoulder. “What?”

But before she could answer, Scorpius had wordlessly passed over a spare quill. Rose was beyond surprise; how did he know? Her eyes met his own icy grey questioningly, and he just smirked in response. Louisa nudged Rose again and Rose nearly dropped Scorpius’ quill.
“Would you quit the nudging?” exclaimed Rose, her heart was beating quickly and she could barely concentrate.

Winthrop peered over her spectacles, she placed an old wrinkled hand on her hip, “Weasley,” she called across the room in her nasally voice, “is there a problem?”

Rose, ignoring the way her heart continued to pulsate a beat or two faster, smiled charmingly, “not at all Professor. I’m sorry, Professor.”

The Professor just glowered in response and turned back to Little Martha Longbottom.

“So what’s going through your head?” Louisa whispered, once she was sure Winthrop was preoccupied again. It was Herbology, and they’d been instructed the tediously boring task of writing notes from the chalk board. “You are only ever this mindless when you’re thinking some thing dreadful.”

Rose was scandalised, “dreadful? Never.” Rose reclined gracefully in her chair, and ignored Louisa by jotting down the notes in her own cursive script. But it was too late, she couldn’t get Louisa off her back now. The girl had scribbled down the importance of the Calibar Climber so fast it was a blur of black ink.

“Rosie,” Louisa said warningly, making a movement to swipe the parchment from under Rose’s nose, but Rose was too quick for her.

Rose pouted at her friend who still didn’t cease her pestering. “Okay,” she sighed finally, gulping and almost close to choking on her words. Damn her Gryffindor pride. She resigned to saying the words she hoped she never, ever had to say to Louisa, “you were right.”

The biggest, most triumphant grin crossed Louisa’s face that Rose couldn’t help but smile in return. She continued to jot down her notes as she explained to her, “I realised some thing yesterday,” she began softly, her eyes never leaving the chalk board.

“Mmm?” Louisa mumbled encouragingly, running a hand through her curls with slight impatience, and unbeknownst to her, streaking black ink all through them.

“About Matchmaking…”

Louisa’s cinnamon coloured eyes narrowed, carefully regarding her best friend, “yes,?” she prompted hesitantly as she drew large inky flowers around the corner of her notes, making them even more indistinguishable. Professor Winthrop would not be pleased.
“I think I did sort of mess up.”

Louisa whoopped so ecstatically Rose had to clamp her best friend’s mouth shut, quickly looking around to see if Winthrop had noticed; luckily she hadn’t. If there was one thing the old Professor didn’t like, it was laughter and happiness.

Rose shushed her looking to see if Scorpius still had his ears peeled in on their conversation, but he was at the front of the classroom, without Winthrop’s knowledge, fixing one of her spelling mistakes on the board. There was no way he could hear.

“No, no,” she said to Louisa uncharacteristically impatient, tearing her eyes away from Scorpius to look at Louisa, her expression determined, “nothing to do with Scorpius.” She finally removed her hand from Louisa’s mouth.

Lousia frowned, her eyes shifting around awkwardly, “oh?”

Rose was lost in her own little world. “No, this is to do with Hugo and Charlize. I know they aren’t for each other…”

“Well, that’s for the best. It’s no good to go around meddling Rose – ”

Rose found this highly frustrating, “I didn’t see you complaining when it meant you and Albus got together.”

Louisa shrugged, continuing her assignment, “me and Albus, we are meant for each other.”

“And who’s to say Charlize and Hugo weren’t?”

Louisa raised her eyebrows at the defensive tone in Rose’s voice, she’d never seen Rose so hyped up. Her lips rose in a lopsided, quirky smile. “You just said they weren’t.”

“Right,” said Rose, her gaze slipping back to the chalkboard, gazing at the back of Scorpius’ platinum blonde head, “so I had a minor slip up. I have stumbled upon the truth at last. Alas, it is not Hugo and Charlize. But Hugo and Gwen.”

Lousia stared at her for a minute before bursting into peals of muffled laughter so that Winthrop wouldn’t catch them, almost smudging all her work “are you kidding?” Catching Rose’s expression she ceased her giggles, “Oh you’re not…”

“In third year you would have thought I was kidding if I told you you’re boyfriend would be Albus Potter of Slytherin the next year,” said Rose, her eyebrow quirking characteristically, a stubborn, determined glint in her indigo eyes.

Louisa seemed lost for words.

“This is right,” Rose nodded decidedly, “I can feel it.”

Louisa had given up, Rose could tell. “Alright,” she sighed, disapprovingly, “but what about Charlize? She seems to like Hugo now.”

Rose shook her head vigorously, her chestnut strands flying everywhere, “no she doesn’t. I can tell. Besides, I don’t think she’d mind Scorpius as a replacement.”

“Oh no. Oh no, no, no…”

Louisa followed Rose to dinner in some what of a huff. Albus and Scorpius shared looks for confusion, but given their silence, didn’t dare say a word. Albus slipped an arm around Louisa’s shoulders and the two Slytherin’s automatically sat at the Gryffindor table which made Rose’s emotions lift sky high.

***

The last few days had passed in a sort of a blur, it had been freezing cold weather which had left little to do, but seventh years found the need to keep inside, regardless of the weather, due to the mountain of home work and readings that their respective Professors demanded. Rose had taken measures to insure the separation between Hugo and Charlize, instead focusing on the potential spark between her brother and Gwen. She had placed the potential opportunity of Scorpius and Charlize as a pair, because the way her brother acted when Rose and Louisa joined him in the common room that day; his tongue partially down to his toes, gapping wide-eyed at Louisa dressed in an especially short, more so than usual, black woollen skirt; alerted to Rose’s senses. She needed to help her brother out desperately, and soon. Rose tapped her fingers sullenly against the window-pane, it was dark outside and the library was practically deserted. Rose hadn’t said a word the entire day. It wasn’t surprising, in fact her friends were more then used to it.

But she was bored. Rose was one of simple pleasures, and could easily single down her favourite things in the entire vast, immeasurable universe, and these were, aside from Matchmaking; the view from the Astronomy tower, the seaside and dancing.

Rose had only been the seaside once in her life and that was when she was roughly eight years old. Sure, her father had been irrationally fearful of the little flock of white birds and refused to make any sudden moves and Hugo had whined non-stop about the chilly wind… but Rose couldn’t think of a place any more beautiful. She’d loved the way the salty breeze had picked up her chestnut long locks and tossed them carelessly and freely about, she loved the warmth of the sun on her face and limbs and the feel of the hot stoney sand beneath her toes. Rose had never felt so free and exulted, and she’d waddled in her dress much to Hermione’s displeasure, feeling the fresh, cool, salty water flow between and through her, like she wasn’t there at all.

Nothing could rid the wide smile off her face for days, not even the parched lips that followed or the dry, irritated and sunburnt cheeks. It’d her utterly breathless, filled with desire and awe, with a promise to herself that she’d come back one day.

Dancing was some thing her mother had encouraged since a very young age, her mother’s dark eyes often glazing over with past memories of her herself dabbling in ballet before discovering she was a witch. Rose didn’t take a particular interest in ballet, but she unadulterly loved music in all shapes and forms, and celebrated it through movement.

So maybe Rose couldn’t make it to the seaside from Hogwarts, but as she watched a few drips of rain trickle gently down the window-pane, she came to a realisation. She could sure as hell dance. She cleared her throat softly, preparing to utter her first sentence of the day.

“I’m terribly bored. Let’s do some thing.”

Louisa was too absorbed in her Ancient History essay to reply. “Quidditch?” suggested Albus lazily as he reclined in his chair, chewing on the end of his quill.

Rose pulled a look of deep repulsion that made Albus and Scorpius laugh. “I was thinking some thing along the lines of… Hogsmeade.” Her eyes were already sparkling with excitement as a plan formed within her mind.

Louisa glanced up at last, “Hogsmeade? Are you insane Rose? Besides, we’ve all got an essay to finish.”

“You mean you’ve got an essay to finish,” corrected Rose with a small smile, anticipating her friend’s reaction.

“What?” yelped Louisa, nearly spilling her ink pot.

Rose dumped her three thousand word assignment in front of Louisa, attempting her best look of innocence, “I finished it this morning. It’s easy, you’ll finish it within the hour.”

Albus raised his dark eyebrows, breaking the rules was never a problem to him. “Invisible cloak,” he replied calmly.

“It’s night…!” tried Louisa, searching for more excuses, “what’s there to do at Hogsmeade at night?”

Rose tapped her chin thoughtfully, “I believe it’s called dancing.”

“What?” chorused Albus and Louisa, they looked at each other and laughed.

“They do that a lot these days, you’d think they’d get used to it,” muttered Scorpius under his breath to Rose.

Rose couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “there’s a club. You know, to dance at.”

Louisa looked doubtful and Scorpius was now frowning.

“Brilliant!” Albus exclaimed on the other hand. Excellent, thought Rose. She knew it’d be easy to get Louisa to come along if Albus was on her side.

“Are you serious, mate?” questioned Scorpius, “a club? In Hogsmeade? It’ll just be sleazy old men trying to get lucky.”

“Not with me,” Louisa said quickly, obviously changing her mind the moment Albus had dubbed it ‘brilliant’. “I’ll be with Al.”

Albus smirked at her and they immersed themselves in quite a lengthy snog.

“And what will you find so entertaining from old wankers trying to grope you?” Scorpius asked testily. Rose gazed at him warily, affronted and taken back from his behaviour.

She frowned, “of course I wouldn’t find that fun!” she said, her voice full of disgust, “I don’t know why you’re being such a ponce but have you ever been to a club around here? Certainly not like those muggle ones. Besides, I just want to dance.”

“We can dance right here just fine,” Scorpius replied stubbornly. Rose cocked an eyebrow, picturing it in her mind’s eye. She let out a real, tinkering laugh that made the corners of Scorpius mouth lift.

“Don’t be silly, Scorpius. Now lets get these leeches separated and get ready to go, okie dokie?”

Louisa pulled away from Albus, her hair slightly more frizzy and her cheeks stained pink, “okay,” she answered, standing up and packing her items into her bag, “but I’m getting you to help me finish my essay tomorrow.” She pointed her finger threateningly at Rose.

Rose nodded, smiling. They bid their farewells to Albus and Scorpius, arranging to meet them on the third floor in twenty minutes.

As they made their way to the Common Room, Rose pondered out loud, “Do you think I could get Charlize to come?”